servbot30 Wrote:
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> Awesome little article, Roger. And I totally just
> jumped on the first response. Internet war is GO!

Can we just ban hipsters from the planet? I went further down the rabbit hole of that Nag article, and the dude has enough free time on his hands to write an entire navel-gazing article about his ironic T-shirt collection as some kind of meaningful introspective. Yucko.

Ugh, that whole article/site made my skin crawl. How about a new magical ability to just micro-nuke offending "toys?" That Nag thing has to go. Especially when there's header "art" with Nag shitting acid (or something) all over a naked woman, cutting her in half? I know it's the whole point, but "offensive" doesn't quite cover it.

I don't know. For me personally, the toy does nothing for me, but at the same time I don't have enough time or energy in me to hate it or someone who collects them or makes them. I would rather they spend their massive amounts of money on this, leaving the vintage for me to quietly buy.

Personally I feel if I did give this much thought, I might be giving this thing more power anyway. Any hype, against or for is all the same for those who make money off it. It gets reaction, it serves it's purpose.

If no one actually cared about it, no one would buy it and then it would go away.
Nothing worse financially or emotionally to an artist, than not being relevant due to lack of attention.

Heh...we were talking about (well--condemning) this toy on page 1 of this thread. But, y'know, since then, I've kinda numbed out to it. I don't hate it any less, but since then, I've come to terms with the fact that this toy ain't going anywhere...just like hipsterism (read: "classism") ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

Every now and then, Ben will forward a link to me about the latest moronic shitshow on skullfuck or some designer vinyl blog about the latest dumb toy hipsters are getting into a sissy-slapfight about. I tell him to stop it, of course, but he won't listen--he's a sucker for punishment, and won't rest until I've suffered as much as he. But anyway, I keep saying that more and more shit like this is just gonna drive me to say fuck it and collect Lego's--something nice, simple, fun, and accessible to pretty much anyone...

Let's not talk about Nag at all here. It's infiltrated SB way too much and we can't let it get a foothold here. It's like a bad case of some super hipster herpes that won't go away. Then again I can railed on SB all the time for not being 'positive'. I'll be mr. positive there if the toy speculators would eat shit and die.

Well, I think the general consensus around here is pretty negative towards these toys, so I'm not too worried about it gaining a foothold here, Chris. And I guess I'm not too worried, either, about "giving it power" by discussing it further, like Josh was saying. My take is simply that the shit's not really worth my damn time to talk about! [Yeah, I know...easier said than done when it's so ingrained in the board that's supposedly THE place to be for vinyl, in general...]

fel9 Wrote:
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> I defy you to find someone who hates Lego's....

Agreed, but my point was really more that Lego's are pretty much universally available (sure, they're a bit pricey at retail). Because they're so ubiquitous, there's no real way to get fanboyish (read again: "classist") about these toys. There are no limited runs. There are no secret releases. There are no blogs to follow to stay up on what comes out. There are no "artists" whose dicks you can ride. There are no fucking exclusive e-mail lists. Retail money notwithstanding, we ALL have access to the same shit...so there's basically *no* way for ME to be able to say I'm somehow a better/realer/hipper "fan" than YOU.

Whether you're a woman who got an abortion or a guy who got beat up in high school doesn't mean jack fucking shit. They're just fucking building blocks...and it's damn near no way to read into it more than that. And therefore, hipsters would never want anything to do with it. You dig?

You frequently see limited and exclusive LEGO items these days. Certain sets and pieces that are only sold through LEGO retail outlets or other specialty retailers, blind-bagged figures, releases restricted to certain countries, limited-edition chrome figures, etc.

If it's a brick set (like that limited mailaway micro TIE) you can make your own if you have plans), but much of it is minifig-oriented and it gets pretty awful if you're a completist. I think this week there is a store-exclusive black Scout Trooper at TRU that you can only get if you buy $75 worth of Star Wars sets.

LEGO got very hip to the fact that there were a lot of adults with disposable income chasing their childhoods out there, and modified their marketing strategies accordingly during the past few years. Besides, what "hipster" wouldn't buy $30 worth of blind bags for a chance to get just one of these?

I thought the NagNagNag article was interesting so I posted it. Nag has never made me angry. I don't like it, I don't hate it, but I think it's funny that as time goes on, more releases have features like hair and clothes. It's becoming more and more like a deformed little baby dolly (which is probably appropriate since it's probably being made at a factory like Obitsu that primarily makes dolls). I want to see one with a little bonnet and pacifier.

if only you could pose the Lego minifigs as dynamically as the marketing suggests they wouldn't be the lifeless crack that even Medicom managed to improve upon (and educate Lego with, marketing wise) with their Kubrick/Lego minifigure ripoffs so many years ago.

I admit I like some of the minifigures but as collectibles, at least the Nags seem somewhat more like an attempt at art.

It's obviously an Oni and fantastically sculpted. Real cloth loin cloth, metal rings/knife, and hand printed paper charms. Totally awesome. Recently Lulubell announced that they'd get 12 of them as the run is uber small. They put those 12 out there as a lottery for the chance to buy one. And it would seem I've got good karma with the Yokai, as I am one of those lucky few to have secured one! It'll ship as late as mid July. Just in time for the Skinner vinyl to arrive. Holy shit do I love and hate modern vinyl. :D

First colorway. what do you think? personally, I think the paint application is slightly heavy-handed. If the greens, blues and reds were turned down a bit, it would be better. Personally I love this toy and will be trying to get regardless....

Preorder announcement coming soon. There will be 10 each of two color versions this summer. Then in the fall, the alternate eye sculpt will go on sale at WonderFest. The Astromonster editions for US sales will always have colorways different than the Atelier G-1 editions. Ballpark price for the US is $125.

Thanks for posting this here, Kirkland! I like it a lot...but, yeah, I think the paint could be a little better. For some reason, when I look at the original artwork, the colors don't seem so hard-edged to me:

I'm so otally hot over the Garaka it's not even funny. I like the colors on the prototype, but also think the toy would look great in the palette from the artwork. I ALSO think either version would look awesome with a rust-colored wash over all the details, or even something bordering on a toned-down for scale 3A finish.

the good news is that aside from this initial colorway from Altelier G-1, there will be 10 pieces each in a dark and colorful colorway with metallics and rust, wear, etc. painted by Alex himself. Pre-order info soon.

Grip is a vintage JP company that made ships and stuff from shows like Gachaman, and they were usually boxed in cool scenic window boxes like the Kappa Racer. I think there's more info on them in the Datafiles here. Definitely if you search the boards you'll come up with a ton. Their packaging is pretty iconic to vintage-heads, of which exactly Zero of the target audience for most of this stuff would catch.

Ben, I'm loving those mini Dragigus and Drazorus toys alot (great pickups), and some more of his non-humanoid minis. More from Mark's blog [unfortunately these are all sold out - mostly before they even hit the market!! :( ] below. I typically only focus on standard or larger sized vinyls, but these really appeal to me and I would love to have them. If only they were more readily available.

Well, all the ones you posted are either one-offs or very short run. The regular painted runs have been much easier to get, and are just as fun. There's even a Nagata HP run mini Drazoran up on the webshop right now that you can still snag :)

Actually, now that hillsy mentions it, I'm totally NOT feeling that moe toy...but then again, that seems to be just a side thing he's doing just for Wonfesu 'cause of the licensing dealie.

I don't mind the Lady Maxx figure. It doesn't smack of moe pandering. But at the same time, I feel a little ambivalent towards it because the design is *very* sharp. Like, unless it gets the full masking treatment, it may not look right. And fully-masked/painted Lady Maxxes cost almost twice as much as his regular painted minis.

Oh yeah...the swappable heads on Lady Maxx most definitely help justify the pricetag. Almost forgot about that one! Really looking forward to a painted glow version (don't hear me say that too often these days, huh?)--masked or free-hand sprayed.